Life Awake
Life Awake
25. Be What You Are
here we are again
SPEAKER_03:here we are again with a fabulous and amazing and beautiful poem
SPEAKER_00:thank you of
SPEAKER_03:yours i
SPEAKER_00:remember it was a summer maybe spring summer getting into summer day and i was sitting on my back porch and this is what a rose
SPEAKER_03:yes you are very poetic
SPEAKER_00:thank you
SPEAKER_03:like i'm like i look at your poetry like this and i'm like i cannot write that Really nice.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, that's why we're different expressions,
SPEAKER_03:right? No, it's very metaphorical. Like you have a beautiful way about you with the metaphors, which I really appreciate. It's high end. It's like gorgeous. Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:All right. Should we dive into it?
SPEAKER_03:Yes, please read it.
SPEAKER_00:All right. This one is called Be What You Are. A seed encased in white lace fingers is carried by God's breath across the sky. It looks like a miniature firework, fingers of light exploding outward as it flies. I could watch it bounce and float and roll as I listen to a chorus of birds, each vying for their place in the melody. Or maybe they don't vie, they simply express without care the song of their hearts. The pine needles shimmer in the sun, green fireworks exploding as the white one blows by. I wonder where it will land and what it will become. I, too, am like the seed in the wind. I do not know where I am floating, but I trust the breath of God to blow me where I am needed, to become what I am meant to become. A seed doesn't worry. It just seeds. It doesn't question itself. It just is. What it is. And it allows itself to transform from seed to flower to tree. It allows and it accepts the natural process of becoming. It is not at odds with itself, wishing it were thinner or bigger or richer or another species altogether. It does not question. Where are you taking me, wind? It does not say, I am not a flower yet. Come on, hurry up. It rests in being what it is. a glorious seed full of infinite potential to be. May I be like the seed. May I trust where I am being taken. May I trust right timing. May I become all I am meant to become and be all that I am right here, right now.
SPEAKER_03:Beautiful prayer. Yeah, beautiful prayer. so beautiful it's almost hard to touch it some part of me like we're gonna go contemplate this now just like listen to it and feel it and sit back and just enjoy it I
SPEAKER_00:think one of the things as we were talking about what we wanted to talk about with this was this beginning is that you know I think it's just something to enjoy
SPEAKER_02:in
SPEAKER_00:the metaphor of watching life
SPEAKER_03:yeah And without a conflict, right? Because that's the whole first piece. Like, you can feel it. There's no conflict. Even if you think about the birds, you're like, well, maybe. Or maybe not. But there's no conflict. The seed is nature. The seed has no conflict with nature. It's not trying. It's not doing. It just is itself. Right? And there's no way to even separate it as some sort of locus of separate power and so on and so forth. So the lack of conflict is apparent and the ability to appreciate it is pretty high. And yeah, it doesn't want to be anything because it can't even... There's no even want... It's not even in the menu.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Would you say that this is... When people talk about being in the moment, you know, when you're in the moment, you're... in life.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, you're in a form of recognition in a way of no conflict, of being carried.
SPEAKER_00:This is here, now this is here. This
SPEAKER_03:is here and that is here.
SPEAKER_00:And it's all just doing its thing.
SPEAKER_03:It's all just doing its thing. There's no puppeteer behind the puppet show. It's really just all doing its thing, which is why it doesn't have a separate reality.
SPEAKER_01:And
SPEAKER_00:even when I'm talking about things being carried by God's breath. That is the wind. Right,
SPEAKER_03:it's metaphorical. It's like, why not? Let's add some beauty to it and some beautiful metaphors so we can feel it. Yeah, and it is really beautifully done.
SPEAKER_00:And do you think beauty, this word beauty, do you think that beauty helps us point to something? Beauty helps us understand something and... these beautiful metaphors that we use in this poetry? I
SPEAKER_03:actually think of beauty as something completely different. Yeah, say more. I think of beauty as an evolutionary capacity. Like it's something that the human form can develop. Like it's actually a development. Like, you know, like sadness is part of our reality. Part of this expression that we are is sadness. Like, you know, the trees don't have sadness. They have whatever they have. Beauty is a kind of very... It's kind of a very sophisticated expression in a way. The ability to experience beauty. And people who really dive deep into themselves and do deep inquiry and meditation often get to a point where they can feel tremendous beauty. You can say our brain can develop into having capacity to... create beauty onto things. Beauty is something you create onto things.
SPEAKER_00:Which is why some of us see what we see in life and others miss it
SPEAKER_03:right so one person can say this is beautiful while the other person can't create an experience of beauty onto that element
SPEAKER_00:so beauty can be anywhere
SPEAKER_03:beauty can be anywhere yeah it is and you know we do have common things that evoke like we do have certain
SPEAKER_00:flowers
SPEAKER_03:flowers right we do have a certain piece of music right there is something that you know we share that is beautiful and others that we can kind of only create for ourselves or grow capacity but definitely people who can't do beauty there's some people who can't do beauty they don't see beauty maybe because they've been hit or traumatized or they're too constricted and then
SPEAKER_00:their frame is different
SPEAKER_03:yeah and it's kind of like a developmental sorrow in a way that these people haven't been able to create beauty. And so if you can't do beauty, what do you have left? Right. It's really a form of deprivation if you can't project beauty onto life. It's a form of... If you can't project, you're in a form of deprivation.
SPEAKER_00:So this is me projecting beauty onto life that then created a beautiful word. Yes. Scramble. Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Right. It is your... Beauty is your creative capacity. Maybe let's do it like that. Yeah, beauty is a creative capacity.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I like that. So where do you feel like this begins in our contemplation? I too am like the seed in the wind.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think it's when we start to work the contrast between the ease of nature, no conflict, and our own. Like we do have a conflict.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:As humans, why do we have such a conflict with what is? I think it was
SPEAKER_03:over too many things.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah? Say
SPEAKER_03:more. I think that like humanity is a zoo. It's like, it's a pretense of one creature, but actually it's many.
SPEAKER_00:We have so many diverse expressions of what humans
SPEAKER_03:are. So many, yeah. And so, and we try to kind of like... It's kind of like we have many different cars or spaceships or whatever, but then we have a parking lot. We go like, well, this is the size of the parking, right? And we don't really fit. And so we're always in a struggle to kind of try to figure out what we are. And also it's not revealed to us
SPEAKER_00:early on.
SPEAKER_03:It's
SPEAKER_00:hidden, if anything. It's hidden, right?
SPEAKER_03:So it's like you're in kindergarten. Everybody kind of looks the same. You're all your friends, you know, by... fourth grade starts to be differentiated you know by end of high school you're like well those people have that and this is this by end of talking about like cliques and how we make these groups and groups out groups right and then different things grow in this personal garden that we have and so I think about my parents. I identify as a philosopher. My parents were not a philosopher, so they did their best to park me as engineer, or maybe he'll be a doctor, or maybe an accountant. Philosopher? What's that? They're like, what do you mean? Think about that problem. I'm a seed that's a philosopher. My parents grew from seeds that are not philosophers. Um, they're all trying to relate to me through their particularly particular place in the zoo of humanity. And then I don't even know what I am until I like in my thirties, I think I'm this.
SPEAKER_00:So if we're using this metaphor of, you know, in the moment in this, I'll read, cause I think this is where we start to ponder. We start to contemplate. I too am like the seed in the wind. I do not know where I'm floating, but I trust the breath of God to blow me where I'm needed to become what I'm meant to become.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And that's the difference. You don't even know what kind of seed you are.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So humans are like, okay, I'm a seed. I have all this potential of what I can blossom into, but I don't know what that is. No. And there has to be a level of trust. Or do we get just like, we've got the seed and then our seed starts to get contorted. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I would guess you, for example, like the power of your particular seed, I would guess, kind of couldn't stop it, right? There's no way. You're like, uh-uh, uh-uh, right? You're like fully relating to that. So in some way you had it hard, in some way you had it easy. The easy part, what's the easy part?
SPEAKER_00:The easy part is this is happening no matter what.
SPEAKER_03:No matter what.
SPEAKER_00:Yesterday I was actually taking a walk with somebody and I was like, I just always feel like I'm like...
SPEAKER_02:It
SPEAKER_00:just has to pour out. It has to pour out.
SPEAKER_02:There's no...
SPEAKER_00:Stopping it is like plugging it is painful. Yes. That would be contorting too much to make me... It would make me sick.
SPEAKER_03:Right. And so that's the brilliant part. That's like... Elton John playing piano, right? You can't stop it. You cannot.
SPEAKER_00:That expression is so... Right, right.
SPEAKER_03:The hard part, however, is that if somebody tried to throw you on a pavement where you can't plant yourself, then it's hard.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And you've also encountered that, I'm sure, where it's like the environment rejected this particular expression.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, historically, if we look at an expression like mine, you get burned at the stake, right?
SPEAKER_03:Hunted down, yeah, I know. absolutely marginalized put in jail
SPEAKER_00:right tied up thank god we don't live in those times anymore let's not go back there we've been there we've done that off that train
SPEAKER_03:right
SPEAKER_00:this seed wants to bloom
SPEAKER_03:yes but there are some seeds and that's also a difficult part there are some seeds who are not clear what they are
SPEAKER_00:right
SPEAKER_03:and so then you're like
SPEAKER_00:they're searching and seeking what that is right
SPEAKER_03:and then and then you're like you know trying to figure out You know, then it's kind of like agriculture. You're trying to plant yourself in a row of the same seeds, and you're like, I think I'm this, because
SPEAKER_00:I don't have... I might be cauliflower.
SPEAKER_03:Right, I might be cauliflower.
SPEAKER_00:But I'm planted with the apple trees.
SPEAKER_03:Right, exactly. Am I a broccoli or a cauliflower, right? It seems a little bit similar, but I'm not sure what I am. You know, or maybe I'm a root vegetable. But am I a carrot or a beet? I'm not sure. And so if you're not sure, it's kind of like you just try.
SPEAKER_00:And can we talk about this? We're using seed as a metaphor, but what does that actually mean? Is that a person? Is that an individual expression of consciousness? What is the seed? And there's what it's going to become. There's this infinite potential of what it's going to become and that genetic material of that seed. But what does that mean to be a seed?
SPEAKER_03:I think in some way, for me, it's like there's something that's already decided. What did we call it? It's existentially secure.
SPEAKER_00:An acorn is going to become an
SPEAKER_03:acorn.
SPEAKER_00:Yes. An acorn
SPEAKER_03:tree. We can always name it differently. But it's existentially secure, meaning... There is no argument about what it is. And if you try to argue with what it is, there's no way to do it. You can't make the acorn, the oak tree, a mango tree. You just can't. There's no way.
SPEAKER_00:It could become a tall tree or a shorter tree or a tree with different branches. And we don't judge that.
SPEAKER_03:No. But you can change its nature. But us, however, we don't do that.
SPEAKER_00:We're still going to be human.
SPEAKER_03:We're always going to be human.
SPEAKER_00:But
SPEAKER_03:we do attempt to contort. Because society is like agriculture. It's like, well, I need to put things in rows. Right.
SPEAKER_00:You don't fit in the row.
SPEAKER_03:You don't fit in the row. Right. What are you doing planting yourself over there?
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:This is not what we had for you. These are not the plans that we had for you. And that's difficult for life.
SPEAKER_00:And so we start this game of contorting ourselves.
SPEAKER_03:Yes. Yeah, pretending that we're a different seed than we are.
SPEAKER_00:And then before we know it, we're like, you know, and what I'm doing right now is like I'm just contorting my body, which actually literally does happen. Our bodies start to contort.
SPEAKER_03:But we don't even know that we're doing that because we're like, well, I'm a contorter plant.
SPEAKER_00:I'm a contorter plant. That's what I do. I contort really, really well. Right, because that's all I know. Right.
SPEAKER_03:Apparently I contort. And you know what? Everybody around me in town is also contorted.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm really good at it. So, you know, I might as well be that kind of seed. Yeah,
SPEAKER_03:so I think we all contoured. We're like, you know, that's why we all drink. Because we're all kind of in all kinds of weird ways of contorting. So
SPEAKER_00:we have coping mechanisms to deal with how we're... Wow, how interesting. So here we are. We're this seed. And we have this potential to become something. But instead of becoming the thing that we're meant to become, we begin contorting. And then we create all kinds of things to deal with the contortion that we've created.
SPEAKER_03:And get together with the other people that are also contorting.
SPEAKER_00:And coping in that way.
SPEAKER_03:And then we get to be contorter plants. Together. A field of contorter
SPEAKER_00:plants. A whole field of contorter plants. Neat little rows contorting perfectly to be what we're not. Yes. Wow.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. It's so uncurious of us. But it's also, you know, we have to forgive ourselves because this zoo has so many types of animals in it. This human zoo. It really is hard to keep track.
SPEAKER_00:Of what we're supposed to be? Right. It's really
SPEAKER_03:hard. I mean, we are in a problem here. There's so much creativity going on. Because we can be anything. Yes, we can be anything. I think... Well, when we go into the lower levels of the seed, you know, we can't start to see where we contort. We can't start to see, like, how we're not following because we're... The contort, it takes a toll on us. It really does. I mean, that's part of what you and I do, right? When we work with somebody.
SPEAKER_00:We help uncontort.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, my God. They come in so contorted. They're so contorted. I'm doing this, but I shouldn't be doing that. And I'm doing this, and I shouldn't be doing that. And you go like... Why are you saying that? I really want to do this, but I can't do that. Right, right. And so there's all these, I think, what is our main method of contorting? Belief systems,
SPEAKER_00:right?
SPEAKER_03:It's interesting that belief is something that a lot of people admire. Like, I believe, as opposed to like...
SPEAKER_00:Every belief system is a limiting belief system.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, it's all contortion. Because it all says I have to really force myself and ignore things. other things right right so our belief systems are all kinds of ways of like i mean oh my god i'm i just saw this um i just read this book called you know a gentleman in moscow and it talks about the the communist revolution in in russia 1970 or some somewhere like that um somewhere around that era um But the level of contortion that started happening once communism hit Russia, everybody started trying to put themselves in rows. And the level of fear was so high to contort that it's just like you're talking about generations of contortion. Generations. It's such a good depiction.
SPEAKER_00:Because it does carry on. I mean, we learn and then an adaptation is that in our genetics that gets carried on. Don't do those things. And so I feel like to be the seed that we fully are, we have to not just undo it within ourselves but within the generational learnings that our genetic material got passed down. And that's 7 to 14 generations.
SPEAKER_03:We have to go back to intuition and we have to treat ourselves as a mystery
SPEAKER_00:yeah
SPEAKER_03:we do we have to treat
SPEAKER_00:so we have to get really curious about ourselves as a seed
SPEAKER_03:we
SPEAKER_00:have to get with unlimited potential
SPEAKER_03:yes and we have to look at others as seeds and kind of wonder what do you know i know that we speak the same language but what are you actually as opposed to like well i know you like do i do i really do you know you do i you know how much have you spent time like really asking yourself um And I think maybe that could be a gift of your poem.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:The gift of the poem is to say, have you asked yourself what kind of seed you are? Like, have you ever contemplated that? Or are you just trying to be in rows in agriculture and just be the same as everybody else?
SPEAKER_00:Trying to fit in. And boy, this trying to fit in thing is painful.
SPEAKER_03:It's
SPEAKER_00:very, I mean, I see it where it's like people are so, they have all this they want to express. They have all this they want to do in their lives. There's so much gifts that they can give to humanity. And they're like, but what if I don't fit in?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's true. I mean, there are basic things in our seeds that are common, otherwise we wouldn't be able to help people. I think the one thing that we see everywhere is the fear of authentic expression. Because the seed is always authentically wanting to express. So whatever seed you are, when you're listening to us, whatever seed you are, The authentic expression is the key of... The freedom of authentically expressing is...
SPEAKER_00:And that's that next one. You already did.
SPEAKER_03:Which
SPEAKER_00:one? A seed doesn't worry. A
SPEAKER_03:seed doesn't worry. It just seeds. It doesn't question itself. It just is what it is. And that's the authenticity. So there's always this... I like to think about the fact that... Sometimes when people come to me... I am the conduit to help them recognize their authenticity because it's been so contorted for so many years. They don't even know what it is. They have a mishmash of authenticity and inauthenticity and they can't differentiate what it is because everybody tells them that there are all kinds of other seeds and other
SPEAKER_00:plans. It's like defragging a computer that's got way too much crap going
SPEAKER_03:on the desktop. If you can read this one, you made beautiful humor about the bigger or richer or yeah
SPEAKER_00:so it goes and the seed allows itself to transform from seed to flower to tree so it allows the transformation of what it is and it allows and it accepts the natural process of becoming it is not at odds with itself wishing it were thinner or bigger or richer or another species altogether right which is what we do it's like oh if only I could be thinner if only I had more money if only and that's I think that's part of our contorting game that we play with ourself
SPEAKER_03:oh it's horrible it's horrible I love how you said from seed to flower to tree or tree, which means there's a natural progression that developmentally needs to be allowed.
SPEAKER_00:You can't be a tree, all of us.
SPEAKER_03:No, you can't.
SPEAKER_00:You've got to sprout and flower. But
SPEAKER_03:we want it sometimes.
SPEAKER_00:I
SPEAKER_03:want to be just like right away. Why am I not a tree? I want to be big. But yeah, it's beautiful that you're pointing to the... beautiful developmental process of seed to flower to tree. And it's a natural process. So it's not like, you know, we make so many unnatural decisions. Like, you know, in the last hundred years, we were like, don't breastfeed, leave the kid. Right. Cry it out. Yeah, we forced moms to, we forced mothers to actually do what's against their nature because we don't, are not in touch with the fact that there is a natural process of becoming here. Right? That's one of the hardest ones for us to understand that there is a natural
SPEAKER_00:process of becoming. we just need to learn not to interfere
SPEAKER_03:yes that'd be so good right just stop interfering you know it's not like what what more to do it's like what stop doing just stop doing things probably most of our troubles will go if we stop doing things we're like adding more things
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so this part here, this is kind of what you're pointing to, too. If you want to read those.
SPEAKER_03:It does not question where you are.
SPEAKER_00:Where you are taking me.
SPEAKER_03:Where you are taking me, wind. It doesn't say, I'm not a flower yet. Come on, hurry up. It rests in being... It rests in being what it is. A glorious seed full of infinite potential to be. I mean, that's a... That's a deep spiritual practice to see everybody as an infinite potential seed. That's a deep... I don't think we... I think probably there's many teachers and educators out there that have made kids' lives amazing because they were able to see potential. Because the whole system itself doesn't necessarily do that.
SPEAKER_00:Or to teach them that they are the thing. Yeah. Like our educational system teaches so much separation as opposed to like, no, you are the seed. You are infinite abundant. You are infinite. You know, how can you love yourself?
SPEAKER_03:Come join the garden.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Right. I really think it's a difference between a garden agriculture. They say that we started this whole mess when we did agriculture. Once we stopped doing gardens.
SPEAKER_00:And then we became like factory farming ourselves.
SPEAKER_03:Based
SPEAKER_00:upon how we were growing our food.
SPEAKER_03:We are totally agricultured.
SPEAKER_00:Which is the contorting.
SPEAKER_03:We are definitely contorting, contorting, futzing around. But we don't know it. Most people don't know it. It takes a lot to actually know how much contorting torsion we
SPEAKER_00:do I remember the moment I really realized it I was like oh my god I'm a pretzel and I like started twisting myself all up and I was like oh I've been twisting myself like a pretzel
SPEAKER_03:yes
SPEAKER_00:I have to stop doing that that is not acceptable
SPEAKER_03:yeah
SPEAKER_00:even though my expression is so like just flows there's still there was still like
SPEAKER_03:oh my god
SPEAKER_00:especially when you're you and I think everyone is actually a big expression but especially when you you have so much life force pouring from you it feels like oh I have to contort even more to so people can manage being around me you know but
SPEAKER_03:as you know there was your ability to pretzel was limited
SPEAKER_00:yes it's very limited it
SPEAKER_03:has a time limit on
SPEAKER_00:it
SPEAKER_03:it does you can do it forever but there's a lot of people that can They go
SPEAKER_00:to their graves having pretzeled themselves.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, there's not enough life force in the seed to stop pretzeling and kind of imagine that it's something else. But it is possible. It's very pleasurable not to pretzel.
SPEAKER_00:It's so pleasurable not to pretzel. So much energy gets to
SPEAKER_03:follow. Once you're the seed that you are, it's so nice. There's no fight. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:But how much energy we spend fighting and contorting.
SPEAKER_03:Oh my
SPEAKER_02:God.
SPEAKER_00:And I think we're also just speaking too, because we see it so often with our clients, right? We see how they're contorting and pretzeling and the racket that they're playing, right? And we don't have judgment of the rackets. It's like, if you want to keep playing that racket, go for it. Yeah. try
SPEAKER_03:to figure
SPEAKER_00:out I'll love you right here I
SPEAKER_03:just try to figure out when we started this pretzeling and contorting like what happened to us that we started we
SPEAKER_00:thought that this was a good idea what was the root cause of you know often to be loved often to not outshine some kind of you know unconscious family loyalty or something
SPEAKER_03:yeah it's kind of like the seed needs a certain kind of nourishment and so it'll do all kinds of contortments to get the nourishment otherwise it can't open can't do anything so you know
SPEAKER_00:I mean thinking a lot about you know raising kids in this conversation too of like we have these seeds how do we not get in the way and my teenage son he's so amazing and and one of the things right now that i feel like i'm working on as a parent is he doesn't need to seek my approval and that you know as a parent is so big because you you You have these things that you want your kids to do, or you want to nurture their seed in a certain way. But maybe that's not... How do we know what's... There's this whole thing of like, I know what's best for you, or any of those kinds of words, and they don't come out of my mouth, but sometimes I think of them. Like, it's probably not wise to do this XYZ thing. And yet, you don't need my approval to have my love. You just are loved.
SPEAKER_03:There's a lot of people that... 30s, 40s, 50s are still running. Trying to get the approval of their parents. Yes. Still trying to get the parent to water their seed.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:And
SPEAKER_00:maybe your parent isn't the one to water your seed. Maybe you water your own.
SPEAKER_03:That's such a good point. That is such a beautiful point.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I mean... That's what I did. I found all kinds of teachers to water my seed. Because it was never going to open until I found somebody who knows how to water it.
SPEAKER_00:And I think love is the water in some way. It's that unconditional loving presence and guide that we wanted our parents to be. That often our parents didn't have the tools to do.
SPEAKER_03:Talk about my life story. This is a sidetrack. I did computer science for almost 12 or 15 years. Plus the studying and
SPEAKER_00:all that. Which was an entire contortion of what you're saying.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my
SPEAKER_03:God. Oh my God. It's like I did not... The ferocity of the decision that I had that I'm going to do this thing. How... oblivious I was of my own the nature of my own seed that I could like just run for a very long time for many many many years trying to do something else trying to be something else you know it was so nice to see the people who were that oh my god they had so much pleasure some people just were that you know they'd just be computer programmer they'd sleep in the office and play ping pong you know that's all they would do and I was like I want to go on a meditation retreat and talk about the seed I this memory of being in corporate and everybody went on vacation and then everybody came back and everybody was like i went to hawaii i went to the caribbean i went camping and or he went like i went to a vipassana meditation retreat i went and sat on my ass and meditated for 10 minutes you know it was like everybody's looking at me and go like why do you do that? because I'm like there's a whole different program running in this person I'm not what you guys are doing thank God I didn't get hunted down I'm lucky that we live in a day and age
SPEAKER_00:where that's not happening well I'm
SPEAKER_03:going
SPEAKER_00:to read this last piece which is my little prayer may I be like the seed may I trust where I am being taken May I trust right timing. May I become all I am meant to become and be all that I am right here, right now.
SPEAKER_03:This definitely needs to be printed out and put on many people's altars. It's great. It's a great prayer.
SPEAKER_00:I wish I could have given it to your computer programmer back then. Just a little like, here, let me plant a seed.
SPEAKER_03:Be all that I am right here, right now. And that's the beauty of it, right?
SPEAKER_00:Because there's this becoming, but it's also being where I am right here, right now.
SPEAKER_03:I mean, the seed includes all of it. Like all of the potential. It's a beautiful prayer. And the trust, right? And the trust and the being taken. And, you know, the seed has a certain control in its expression because it is one sort of expression, but it doesn't...
SPEAKER_00:It doesn't know where it's going to be planted. No,
SPEAKER_03:it does not. No, it doesn't
SPEAKER_00:know. You might be planted in a computer programmer land.
SPEAKER_03:I was. I was. No more. But yes. Yeah, that's such a beautiful trust prayer. I'm really enjoying that.
SPEAKER_00:You had a story about an eagle. And the hummingbird. Do you want to share that as we close?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So this is something I've, you know, I've thought about many times because, you know, you have people coming to teachers, especially like seekers coming to spiritual teachers or yoga teachers or meditation teachers, whatever, you know, the version of the spiritual teacher is. And, you know, a lot of the time what I've seen within myself and with others is that The teacher is a certain kind of seed or a certain kind of plant or a certain kind of animal. In my case, I used to call it, let's say the teacher is an eagle, just to give the teacher a nice archetypal big bird. And then the eagle, of course, gives everybody eagle practices. Right, because they're an eagle. Right. But not everybody's an eagle. And so you get a hummingbird come there and the eagle says, well, let me give you eagle practices. And so the hummingbird does eagle practices, which of course don't work. Right. For the hummingbird. And then years later, it's like, you know, the eagle goes like, well, you didn't practice hard enough. And the truth is that it's not that the hummingbird didn't practice hard enough. It's that the eagle is oblivious of the fact that it's just... giving practices for its own kind. Right. Right. Which happens a lot in like everybody's trying to find its own kind. Right. And somebody is a pianist. You know, the biggest hope is to find another child that's a savant. They can share with them the great piano capacity that they have. It's like the savant's dreams to find another. Right. And that makes spiritual teaching very tricky because it's not really like that. Like here we have another proposition, which is, It is the eagle's responsibility to see what bird is coming. It's the teacher's seed responsibility to approach.
SPEAKER_00:And say, you are a hummingbird. Right. I love you, hummingbird. Right. Here's your gifts. Here's how you fly.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Here's how you fly.
SPEAKER_00:Here's how you become more hummingbird.
SPEAKER_03:Right. Right. And I see that over and over again. I had a friend that studied yoga for many years, and he's like, You know what? I didn't get even flexible even one bit. He's like 10 years. He's like, I never got flexible. What I saw is that, you know, that'd be like these very flexible women that would come in and they would become the teachers for the next generation because they could do all the beautiful things that are required for this game. And then there's a game that keeps we keep on sinking into this game. And the people who can accelerate in this game are the ones that fit this game. They're the eagles or whatever sea that they are. And it's tricky. And it's tricky. And it's tricky for parents. You know, it's tricky for parents that, you know, they want their kids to be the eagle that they are.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:And you have teachers and really part of the beauty, if you can find it, is to find somebody who is interested in being curious about what you are.
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_03:Not what they want, not what they are. Who
SPEAKER_00:are you and how can I nurture who you are?
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. And I think we don't do that. I think like, you know, like... A lot of yoga teachers are just like, this is the amazing things I can do. And so everybody comes to me because I look really cool.
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Well, I can, let's say even meditating, right? Somebody says I can meditate for 20 hours a day. I'm like, okay, so that's what you can do. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Do you think that people do that because there's a loneliness? I mean, I think that that's one of the reasons why. This expression that's Jaya will do it is like, I want people to come play in my sandbox with me. I mean,
SPEAKER_03:that's why we're friends.
SPEAKER_00:We've talked about this on this podcast before. Yeah, that's why we're friends. Life is such a loneliness. Right. Because we have that philosophy. Right.
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:But the beauty is that I have you and a couple more people to do philosophy. Some of my clients, sometimes they'll do philosophy, but some of my clients will go like, no way. Like it would be horrible if I do a philosophy on them because they're something else. And so I just haven't had enough of you in my life
SPEAKER_00:to
SPEAKER_03:not want everybody else to be like me.
SPEAKER_00:Right. So I think that's an important piece. It's like if your seed is a certain expression. And I want to back up before I say that. Just something you said that was really, really beautiful is this idea of like honoring and being curious about who all the seeds are.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_00:And we're not trying to make them like us. And one of the key things that I think you just we just came upon is that. one of the ways out of that is to have other people around you who are those seeds that are like you that you can be with so then you can appreciate the diversity and not try to make everybody into the mold of you. I know I can fall into that mistake sometimes because I quite like my expression. Right. I have the best expression. You guys should all
SPEAKER_03:be like me. And so there's this tendency that we have to homogenize, which is to find like-minded as opposed to have a balance which is like I need some like-minded but the variety actually helps me open up too and that's kind of hard to do sometimes because we're more and more specialized so we're more and more homogenized which is fine again mostly we're talking here about spiritual practices beware beware make sure that you're not idealizing some ego that's going to give you ego practices and then you're going to like I went to India and I saw like a teacher that was like he was just letting all the students run around to be exactly like him and like he would constantly talk about like how Sanskrit is the most amazing language and so on so forth and I remember looking at him going like I'm never going to study Sanskrit so what is the point of me studying with you because you're constantly going to Your whole teaching is built around the fact that you know a certain language and a certain culture that I can never be part of. So why do you even want me here? Unless
SPEAKER_00:your expression works really, really, really hard and dedicates your life to it.
SPEAKER_03:Right, unless I become... I only
SPEAKER_00:say this because I'm learning Sanskrit right now. You have to be into it. I have to listen and listen. One line takes me a month just to try to learn. But I'm into it. My expression is into it. I want to chew on all of it.
SPEAKER_03:and some people want to become some people have an affinity to like you know they go like I've been in a family of you know woodpeckers and I'm actually an eagle
SPEAKER_01:right
SPEAKER_03:and yes I am from a western culture but actually internally I'm From India somehow. Right. Somehow a mistake was made, right? Yeah. And so that's really cool. And then you see people, you know, change their clothes and change their whatever because they're like, I don't belong here. I
SPEAKER_00:actually belong there. So that's, you know, that's an interesting place to close to is just on this identity conversation. Yeah. Because I think that we... Do we... Is identity part of the seed that we are? And we shift that and change that to match more of this becoming of who we are? Or is who we are fundamentally at the root of the seed all the same? Or both?
SPEAKER_03:Well, the fact that we can talk to each other means that we have a sameness. I think without the sameness, it would be really... Big zoo. But yes, there are different expressions.
SPEAKER_00:We're all a seed and we all have the potential energy.
SPEAKER_03:Right. We're all going to blossom. We're all going to open up. We all do kind of the same thing. Whatever plant we are or animal we are, that definitely is different.
SPEAKER_00:So we are life expressing in diversity. In
SPEAKER_03:diversity, yes. And usually it's okay. I mean, the places that it encounters difficulty is when your caregiver or teacher or whatever cannot recognize what you are.
SPEAKER_00:And
SPEAKER_03:then they either reject you or try to cut you down or try to limit you. Or just confused and thinks that there's something wrong with you. And that's the tragedy sometimes. It's like somebody doesn't really understand what's happening with you.
SPEAKER_00:I have a statement that I've been saying lately because I was noticing myself saying to myself, I'm so weird. I'm such a weird expression. I'm really weird. And I shifted it to, I was created as a perfect expression of divine consciousness. Nice. And I'm, I'm really jiving on that. You know, I could, you could even say perfect expression of life, consciousness, whatever God, you know, you want to put in there, but I was created as a perfect expression, just that piece. And then I added onto it and my work is necessary, welcomed and needed, which is, it's just like really shifted things for me. Cause I think most of this expression is life. Um, has struggled a little with this feeling like i'm weird and i think a lot of people struggle with belonging i'm weird i don't fit in which is so funny because we're all thinking that yeah but no you were created as a perfect expression yeah there is no mistake here
SPEAKER_03:i used to say like to people sometimes that there's a different demand on me than there's other people from my own nature you know and and to be devotional to that demand. Like there's a certain demand on me to philosophize that my job in life is to hone in on that. And there's demands on you, tremendous demands.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. What is that purpose? And can we fully lean into it without the fear that... We're going to be ostracized. That we need to contort.
SPEAKER_03:So,
SPEAKER_00:everybody be a seed.
SPEAKER_03:Everybody be a seed. Let yourself open. Find other people that like the way you open. Thank you for this beautiful poem.
SPEAKER_00:Enjoy it. I invite everyone to take that last piece that may I be like a seed all the way to right here right now. Post it up somewhere.
SPEAKER_03:Gorgeous.